Shame on you Ralph Lauren for marketing a Genocidal Era of the Native Americans

July 1524 was the first known kidnapping in America. Italian Explorers kidnapped a Native American and brought him to France. 1709 a slave market was erected at the foot of Wall Street in New York City African Americans, Native American men,women and children were declared property of the highest bidder.1850 California Legislature responded to starving Native Americans by turning them into slaves and the law permitted White people to indenture Native Children which led to  widespread kidnapping. 1879 the first students, a group of Lakota Children arrived at The United States Training and Industrial School, the goal was to remove young Natives from their culture and refashion them for mainstream American society. In other words Natives were to be brainwashed and forced fed a culture not their own, to become the white man.

The new Ralph Lauren campaign is full of all the humiliating reminders of an era of destruction to the Tribal Nations. Why would a company want to promote such racism and hatred toward the first Nations people and on top of which attempt to profit off of their genocidal history. Perhaps Ralph Lauren does not have a complete understanding of the era in which they are depicting as the educational system has never painted a transparent picture of the history in which torture, rape, abuse, slavery, kidnapping and murder were accepted forms of behavior for those of white privilege. To bring things home for Ralph Lauren this history is the manual Hitler used as a basis for his final solution for the Jewish people.

Native American people love to see their Nations promoted in the fashion industry but in a way that respects the culture and history of who they are as human beings the very same way anyone else would request to be represented. If you want and choose to utilize Native Americans in a promotional way perhaps taking the time to speak to Natives and ask how you can do so that honors their history instead of promoting genocide.

The First Nations People ask you to remove these photos from your current campaign and replace them with photos that do not promote a history that is painful and humiliating full of racism and hatred. Would you use  photos of the Holocaust in a clothing campaign? I do not believe that you would.

CIA Torture Report there is so much is left unsaid

A Little Honesty

As I began reading this much abbreviated report, I like many other people felt sad, disgusted and angry. The horrifying details of this report require real answers and not just for the people of this nation but for the people globally. This report does not simply effect 119 people because that unfortunately is not the reality of the situation. 54 countries played a part in the abuses described in the CIA Torture Report. Many detainees who were released have even openly stated these abuses are still live and active today. Honest investigative journalism brought down the claims that torture was not being done in secret prisons long ago as Jeremy Scahill found evidence that these practices were still in play even in 2011. 
 (The CIA's Secret Sites in Somalia) 

Where did you hide them all?

Have you ever heard the term Black Site? It is a military term for an unacknowledged “Black Project” or better known as a prison operated by the United States CIA. These prisons are generally operated outside of US legal jurisdiction and they were acknowledged by President Bush in a speech he made on September 6, 2006. Many countries that were exposed in the torture report have constantly denied being a host country to these prisons. In many writing that have previously gone unacknowledged or even discredited by missing or abducted persons families laid claim to their family members being taken and placed in secret prisons worldwide. A good example to refer to would be Dr. Aafia Siddiqui who simply disappeared as the story is told by her sister and family.  

 
 

The Guantanamo Lie

In a video published on August 13, 2014 two Vice News Reporters were given access to Guantanamo Prison. The Department of Defense told Vice News that they were more open to the media’s presence then they had previously been in the past. With the claims that Guantanamo had a new mission to be transparent I was surprised by what I was able and not able to see in this 27 minute video. If you pay close attention to the little details you will find that although some things have indeed changed others have not and it does raise concern and give some validity to claims that torturous procedures are still taking place today.   (Vice News Guantanamo: Blacked Out Bay)

                                                      Former Guantanamo Detainee:

Torture and Writing New Laws

Waterboarding, rectal feeding, beating, slapping, kicking, stripping, sleep depriving, placed in diapers, chained in positions that are painful and impossibly cumbersome, confined in boxes, left in the dark, humiliated and left in states of hallucination, begging for death and even frozen to death. A short but brutal horrifying list of the some of the procedures described in the Torture Report. Human beings faced inexcusable acts of brutality at the hands of people not properly trained to interrogate with ideas formed on dark harmful psychology whom also were not properly trained to investigate nor interrogate situations such as these. In reading this report I ask myself these questions:

On September 14, 2001 The Authorization for use of Military Force was passed by the United States Congress (PDF PLAW107) , The authorization granted the President the authority to use all" necessary and appropriate force" against those whom he determined "planned, authorized, committed or aided" the September 11th attacks, or who harbored said persons or groups. What and who defines appropriate? I am not a lawyer but I can read and if the claim is that no one in Congress knew what was happening to these detainees I am going to call your bluff because according to this you approved all means of force. 

Torture in all forms was banned by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights in which the United States participated in drafting. International law states that we must protect all citizens from terrorists. The fundamental of all human rights is the right to life. Acts of terror are considered crimes against humanity and these are generally punishable by death or long term prison sentences which do not include the right to torture. Torture in and of itself is a crime and the practice of it needs accountability and punishment for the use thereof. These actions demand and require accountability. If one can simply be pardoned as mainstream media has suggested then other nations facing similar charges under international law should receive the same pardon. I mean why bother holding anyone accountable at all? It is time for all Nations to come clean and report their abuses and abide by International Law once and for all, to do away will all practices that defeat the very principles in which we proclaim to live by. If the United States is the leader in all international matters and in times of trouble the US is the one looked to for support and as an example, than lead now and do the right thing.